


Do you want to go Waterskiing Hiccup?

by TheTrashQueeeeen



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Boarding School, F/F, It’s the 80’s baby!, mentioned in detail, tw: eating disorders, young!hicksqueak
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23527255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheTrashQueeeeen/pseuds/TheTrashQueeeeen
Summary: When Hecate begins her first year at Cackles academy for witches, she settles into bad habits in order to survive the dog-eat-dog world of teenage girls. Pippa like school just fine, but is intrigued by the Hardbroom girl who never seems to talk to anyone. When the girls become fast friends they discover a lot about themselves, and each other. Young!Hicsqueak AU  TW: mention of eating disorders
Relationships: Hardbroom/Pentangle (Worst Witch), Hicsqueak - Relationship
Comments: 12
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! I wanted to have this whole thing finished before I started posting, but quarantine is hitting me hard. Enjoy!

_1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. _Hecate took comfort in the repeated motion of folding her clothes into the trunk, repeating the mantra over in her head to slow her racing thoughts. _Arm, arm, fold. _  
“Are you finished Hecate?” The cold voice from the doorway caused her to whip around to face her mother.  
“Almost,” she muttered, reaching over to pull the trunk lid closed.  
“Well hurry up for goodness sake, there’s not going to be this kind of room for error in a witching academy,” she responded with disdain, absentmindedly adding a lock charm to the trunk.  
As Hecate lay her ill-fitting uniform over her desk chair for the next morning, her mother motioned two members of the household staff into the room. They picked up the heavy trunk between them and manoeuvred out of the room with some difficulty, taking the luggage to the transportation post outside.  
“Come along, Hecate, into bed.” Her mother insisted, placing her hand on Hecate’s back to move her. Hecate almost felt a little warmth in her words, but this was quashed instantly. “You have a long flight tomorrow and I won’t have you embarrassing us because you’re tired. Hardbrooms do _not _crash”.  
She marched out the door as soon as Hecate had climbed into bed and waved her hand behind her as she left. The charm pulled Hecate’s duvet up to her chin and closed the door behind her, leaving Hecate alone in the darkness. Despite her mothers’ orders she sat up and got out of bed, drifting over to the window. Her long nightgown whispered against her ankles as she walked and the slight breeze coming from the autumn evening ruffled her hair. She stood there, her bare feet absorbing the icy chill from the flagstones, watching the moon rise over the woods. Her fingers traced the stiff folds of her uniform as the full moon cast an ethereal glow over the landscape. Only when the soles of her feet were numb with cold, and she could hear her parents coming up to bed did she finally patter back over to her own duvet. She curled up small underneath the covers, trying to shiver some warmth back into her extremities. It didn’t take long before she managed to drift into a troubled sleep, nerves colouring her dreams.__ ____

__

__

____

____

She was roused only a few hours later by the housekeeper bustling around lighting candles. The sun hadn’t even risen.  
“Good morning Miss Hecate,” she whispered as Hecate turned over and sat up.  
“Good morning Miss Alberta,” she whispered back with a smile.  
When Hecate was small she hadn’t understood why her parents treated the people who helped them around the house so badly. In protest she started addressing them as Miss and Mr to demonstrate her disapproval. It had earned her a week and a half of silent treatment, but the smile it brought to the housekeepers’ face was worth it. With a yawn she swung her feet out of bed and started getting dressed, ignoring the gnawing feeling in her stomach. She made sure her plaits were neat and symmetrical, her shirt pressed and her skirt precisely knee length- no longer, no shorter. When she felt like she looked as perfect as possible, she went down to the dining room to have breakfast, but was met by Alberta again. Instead of the large plate of toast and eggs Hecate was used to being greeted by, Alberta was holding a small shoulder bag, her cloak and her broomstick.  
“I’ve packed you some breakfast to eat on the way, Miss Hecate. There won’t be time to sit down” she told her and handed her the shoulder bag, which she put on obediently.  
Alberta helped her into her cloak and walked her out before handing her broom over. Hecate hadn’t been helped into a cloak for a long time, even when she was young her mother had left her to fumble clumsily with the buttons.  
“Aren’t mother and father coming down?” She asked with little hope. She knew the answer before she even asked the question. If they were planning on coming down, they would already be here. Hardbrooms weren’t late.  
“They didn’t get to bed until very late last night,” Alberta began to explain but Hecate cut her off in a rare show of rudeness.  
“Of course, it wouldn’t be practical,” she said, trying to convince herself as much as anything else. She began fussing around, getting her broom to hover, readying to mount.  
“Be careful dear, it’s a long way to go,” Alberta said, forgiving Hecate’s snub and pulling her into a hug. Hecate allowed herself the comfort for precisely 3 seconds before pulling back and mounting her broom.  
“Good luck.”  
“A good witch doesn’t need luck, Miss Alberta,” she whispered back. Even though her words were short, her voice shook as she said them.  
“Right you are, Miss Hecate,” she affirmed with a smile. Alberta was instantly struck by the young girl's wide eyes and trembling lip. Eleven seemed awfully young to be sent off on this long trip all alone. She continued smiling regardless, not wanting to unnerve her charge. Keeping that smile in mind Hecate moved off to begin the long flight to her new school, pretending the butterflies she felt were just from being hungry, not from being nervous.

—

Hecate knew she had messed up by the time she got ready for bed that night. When she touched down that morning, she looked around and realised her pin neat appearance was not the best choice to have made. She had planned to go and find a nice area on the grounds to eat her packed breakfast when she arrived. However, she’d been so uncomfortable, she’d run to her room and focused instead on unpacking. All the girls looked bright and backcombed; like a flock of exotic birds. When Hecate had landed they had all turned and stared, muttering about her pin neat French plaits, her baggy jumper, her knee length skirt. They had all backcombed their hair, their jumpers were tight, and their skirts had been hiked up at least three inches. Hecate didn’t know that all of the girls would have decided on a new uniform before they’d ever even met each other. It didn’t occur to her that her own solitary childhood was not the norm, that they had written letters back and forth to one another all summer detailing this moment.The whispers and laughter followed her up the stairs, seeping into her body and making her feel sick.

When she reappeared at dinner everyone had already made up their mind the Hardbroom girl was weird, but it only got worse when the welcome feast was brought out. Hecate wasn’t used to such lavish food; her parents ate simple meals when alone in respect of the craft, and Hecate never went to the indulgent parties and dinners they were invited to. The only thing she recognised was the tureen of vegetable broth, so she had helped herself to a bowlful, which had only made them all hate her more. Now the Hardbroom girl wasn’t just odd, she was a standoffish snob, above gorging herself on the feast with everyone else. That night Hecate huddled under her thin blanket, missing her thick duvet at home and allowed herself to cry. She cried for all the mean names already being passed around, for the stares and the sniggers, for having messed everything up within a few hours. She curled up around her grumbling stomach and shivered her way to sleep, already wishing to leave.

The next morning, she washed her face and refused to give in. They didn’t just hate the way she dressed, and changing to look like them wouldn’t undo the damage. She kept her skirt the same length and plaited her hair the same as yesterday. At breakfast, while all the other girls her age came to the table weighed down by piled high plates she sat quietly and ate her small bowl of porridge slowly. She wished breakfast to be over, so they could just go to charms, all the chatter was making her feel queasy.

—

“Right, girls. I don’t know how many of you have already learnt some magic before, but if you have,” the teacher paused to peer around the room, “I have one piece of advice for you: forget everything! Most of the techniques used to teach children control over magic won’t work after puberty so it’s best you don’t try. Today we’re going to learn a simple sparking spell.”  
All the girls stood in an empty room, dotted around a few feet away from each other. The teacher was a young, red headed woman named Dorothea whose enthusiasm infected the whole room. She weaved in and out of the girls as she gave instructions, her hands gesticulating wildly.  
“So, I want you to hold your hands in front of you and concentrate really hard on your magic. When you focus on it you can feel it flowing in your veins- but be careful, I don’t want any fires! When you’ve concentrated it in your hands I want you to say _‘scintillam’.” _  
She held her hands in front of her and demonstrated, deliberately articulating the syllables. A shower of golden sparks shot out of her hands and rained down over the now gasping and chattering girls.  
“Okay your turn!” She clapped her hands together and stood to watch them.__

____

____

Hecate held her hands in front of her as instructed and closed her eyes to focus in on her magic. She could truly feel the raw potency of it zipping around her body, as hot as the sun, as powerful and untameable as the ocean. She focused hard on sending it to her hands, feeling it pool in her fingertips like ink. When she opened her eyes, she could see her hands had an ethereal glow that made them look like she’d borrowed them from an angel. She muttered the incantation under her breath, not wanting to draw attention to herself, and an impressive shower of sparks shot upwards and ricocheted off the ceiling. Hecate gasped in wonder, a wide smile spreading across her face as the sparks cascaded down around her, she could feel them fizzing as they landed on her skin.  
“ _Well done _, Hecate!” Dorothea called from the front of the room, clapping as she wove around the room towards her “be careful though, you don’t want to burn anything, sweetie”  
“But she did it wrong,” Ursulla Hallow sneered from the other side of the the room, “the sparks are meant to be gold not green,” she finished triumphantly, nodding her head for emphasis.  
“Gold _en _” Dorothea corrected quickly “and you should know, Ursulla, this is a colourless incantation, your gift dictates the colour. Don’t try to mindlessly copy me or you won’t get very far.”  
Ursulla was right, Dorothea’s sparks had been as golden as the sun, but Hecate’s were the deep green of tree canopies in late summer. Not even the eye rolling and teasing could dampen her smile though. Ursula had been cut off mid-rebuke by a spray of bright pink sparks from the back of the room and Hecate spent the rest of the lesson making her ‘depressing’ sparks dance and swoop around her hand. Dorothea _liked her _.Dorothea had said well done, like Hecate’s untameable gift was something good. She couldn’t remember the last time her mother had even acknowledged her doing magic, never mind praising her for it. She’d almost had to stop herself skipping out of the lesson. She might even try to talk to someone at dinner tonight, she thought happily. Unfortunately, she was rapidly brought back down to earth by a chattering gaggle of girls rushing past her. One of them bumped into her and Hecate was painfully pushed into the wall, her books crashing to the floor. She thought she saw a blonde girl in the centre of the group look back to see what happened, but she must have been imagining it; even if she did turn around, she didn’t try to help.______

_____ _

_____ _

On the way to the dinner hall that night, Hecate took an impulsive turn towards the library and decided to go and do her homework instead. She couldn’t face the chatter and laughter, the stares and mutters. The whispered conversations they didn’t really try to hide, that she was supposed to pretend she didn’t notice. She’d honestly rather go hungry she decided, and allowed herself to be absorbed by the craft. She stayed there studying until long after she heard the clatter of her peers coming out of the dinner hall and finally crept back to her room minutes before lights out. She was so exhausted she crawled straight into bed, the deep feeling of hunger becoming a comforting normalality as she slipped into sleep.

Hecate has always liked a routine, it appealed to her precise nature, so it came to no surprise to her that a pattern emerged in her behaviour. Hecate would arrive 10 minutes before the end of breakfast, excel in her lessons, pick at lunch, try to avoid interacting with her classmates at all costs and then skip dinner to study. She barely noticed her skirt slipping down to her hips, or her jumper becoming looser. She did notice her marks climbing though. As she packed to go home for October half term, she slipped her perfect report into her shoulder bag carefully, excited to finally have something to brag about at home.

—

As soon as Hecate’s boots touched the gravel of the sweeping driveway at home she handed her broom straight to the broom hand, barely stopping to gabble “thank you, Mr Edwin” before she rushed inside. She didn’t bother to remove her bulky winter cloak or boots before shooting upstairs, straight past a befuddled Alberta and into her father’s study.  
“Mother, Father, I’m home!” She said loudly enough for her parents to flinch slightly.  
“Yes, we can see that Hecate,” her father said as he stood up to greet her.  
“Hecate why on earth are you wearing your cloak indoors?” Her mother berated as she turned around to also acknowledge her daughter.  
Hecate had been so starved for human connection not even their cool welcome was enough to deter her.  
“Sorry mother, I just wanted to show you this as soon as I got home.” she explained and rummaged in her bag to pull out the report, handing it over with barely suppressed glee.  
Her mother took it slowly and both her parents peered down at the grades, taking an age to read.  
“Your potions are good, Hecate,” her father said in as close to praise that she could ever remember receiving.  
Her mother simply tsked her 89% in chanting, reminding her that just because it wasn’t an academic discipline it didn’t mean she could underachieve.  
“Now come along, Hecate, off with your silly cloak and boots, you look ridiculous,” her mother insisted.  
She shrugged off her cloak and bent down to untie her boots. She could feel her mother surveying her uniform as she hung the cloak up and neatly stowed away her footwear. Hecate stayed stock still as her mother approached her and for one wonderful, stupid moment Hecate thought her mother was going to hug her. She was wrong. Her mother pinched the spare fabric of her jumper and ran her finger around the waistband of her skirt easily.  
“Well some hard work on the craft has certainly done you some good. You’re finally dropping your puppy fat,” she said with an actual smile, well a thin-lipped smirk, but a smile all the same. “Go and tell Beatrice she needs to take all your uniform in, we don’t have time to order new,” she finished, dismissing her.

Alberta was worried by Hecate’s startling weight loss. Worried enough to deliberately make her favourites all week long. Cooked breakfasts graced the table every morning, despite the chastisement from Helen for the lavish spread. After the third day in a row of toad in the hole and roast potatoes for lunch, Hades made a point to tell Alberta she did not need to pander to Hecate all the time. However, she wasn’t perturbed, and proceeded to prepare fish and chips for dinner (made with haddock, of course) and a hearty apple crumble for pudding. Hecate wolfed down every mouthful placed in front of her with glee. Her growling stomach commanded her to continue eating after months on such minimal food. After a week of eating three times a day, Hecate had noticeably bloated a little. She pretended it didn’t hurt when her mother pinched the extra inch with disappointment.

—

When she returned to school it felt like her body had betrayed her. It had gotten used to the few calories being put into it and, by the end of term, Hecate rarely felt hungry. But in the library at dinner time on the first day, the smell of roast dinner in the air, she couldn’t help herself. Her hobnailed boots conspired against her, frog marching her towards the devilish smell in the dining hall. When she sat down in front of a free plate she could see all the other girls stop talking and turn to look at her  
“Oh, girls, quickly!” Ursulla began loudly, making Hecate wish she hadn’t bothered in the first place “sit up straight, hold your cutlery properly. Lady Hardbroom has graced us with her presence,” the whole table sniggered around her, and suddenly her empty stomach seemed like a badge of honour.  
She felt the adrenaline surge around her body, she wasn’t hungry, she was strong. She got up quickly and floated out of the room, lighter than air. I don’t need their sustenance or their approval she decided, and went back to the library, interested to know how many calories they had just eaten that she had been strong enough to refuse. Later that night in bed, she allowed herself to relive the humiliation to keep herself steel ribbed and brave. But the more she thought about it, the more she could swear she heard that blonde girl telling Ursulla to shut up.

Hecate was a quick study and soon she had transformed her mind into an abacus. Breakfast: porridge with brown sugar click click 156+15=152. Acceptable. But one day, when she was thinking, she realised she couldn’t guarantee the cook made the oats with water. She made an invisibility potion (17) and snuck downstairs early one day to observe the food being made. She was horrified to see gallons of whole milk being pitched into the vat of porridge. The same vat of porridge she got her breakfast from every morning. Click click click 156+221+15=392. Tears dripped down her invisible face as she hurried away, conscious that they would be visible as soon as they hit the floor. She decided she would have to drop the sugar and half her portion to make up for the blunder, and chastised herself for being so thoughtless. Lunch: 1 portion of smoked salmon for protein and 1 slice of bread to stop anyone catching on. Click click 300+140=440. Disgusting.  
Dinner: nothing. The best meal of all. Instead of dinner she would sit in the library, filling her mind with information rather than her stomach with empty calories. One day, near the end of summer term, Dorothea came into the library late to find a book. Hecate was shocked, nobody ever came into her little back alcove this late but there Dorothea was, beautiful, engaging, thin.  
“So, this is where you hide away at dinner time,” she said, pulling the book she came for off the shelf and holding it against her front.  
Without even attempting to hide her nosiness, Dorothea wandered around to Hecate’s back reading over her shoulder.  
“Wow that’s some advanced stuff,” she commented, moving to sit down next to her, “but you don’t need to skip dinner every day to read ahead. I’d bet you were still top of the class even if you ate something.”  
Hecate saw what was happening immediately and the lies came out of her mouth like she was a well-oiled machine, saturating the room with placation.  
“Mother and Father don’t approve of lavish food, so they send me parcels with our owl. I prefer to eat alone,” she smiles a reassuring grin, knowing Dorothea would believe her. How could she not? Tall, precocious Hecate, sat straight as a rod, studying after hours. The negative space of her body making her look delicate and perfect. She looked like the model student. She was a model student. Dorothea would have no reason to believe she would lie.  
That night when she went to bed, she smiled to herself and swore she would break into the nurses’ room tomorrow to use the big weighing scales.

—

When she gets home for the long summer holiday that year, her mother greets her outside, asking to see her final report right away. She hands it over immediately, delighting in the slight smile she can see brewing.  
“95 in chanting, 98 in charms, 100 in potions, Hecate this is a big improvement on last term.” She pauses slightly, looking straight into her daughters’ face, “I’m proud of you,” she said and promptly spun on her heel to go and show her husband.  
Hecate couldn’t contain herself, the massive grin on her face dissolved into a pleased giggle. She ran her thumb along the inside of the waistband of her skirt, checking there was still the same amount of space as yesterday. Next, she wrapped her hand around her bicep to see if she was any closer to her goal. When her thumb brushed the very tip of her middle finger Hecate decided she’d never been happier in her entire life and wouldn’t let the abundance of food make her weak. She was going to lose even more weight this summer, she vowed. When she went back to school in six weeks, everyone would stare because she was so thin and elegant, not because she was the Hardbroom girl.

—

September arrived all too soon and Hecate was in a terrible mood. She had grown several inches over summer, meaning her acceptable weight range was no longer accurate, and she hated inaccuracy. She weighed more than she ever had before, and in response she’d eaten next to nothing over the last week before school started. She could no longer tell if it made a difference, it was like her eyes didn’t work properly anymore. On the first day of second year she had skipped both breakfast and lunch, hiding away to try and stop attention being drawn to herself. After a summer spent swimming, starving and napping, having 5 lessons one after the other had exhausted her completely. She had potions last, but as she walked through the door black spots danced across her vision, unconsciousness trying desperately to drag her to the ground . Just as she was convinced she was going to pass out in front of the whole class, and be the laughing stock all over again, she spotted a chair through the haze and made a beeline towards it, flopping down heavily. She was pleased when her vision cleared along with her head. The girl sat next to her leaned over and placed her hand on her shoulder, looking straight at her.  
“Are you okay?” She asked, concerned she could feel all the bones in Hecate’s shoulder under her thin shirt.  
When Hecate just stared at her blankly she tried again “It’s Hecate, right?” Hecate nodded “I’m Pippa,” she finished.  
Pippa really didn’t like the glassy look in Hecate’s eyes, so she reached down into her bag and pulled out a bottle, “here, drink this, it’s only water,” she assured, handing it over.  
“Thanks,” she said carefully, taking a sip and passing it back.  
“I’m really tired too,” Pippa said, trying to empathise.  
Hecate couldn’t imagine how Pippa would look normally if this was her tired. She was a bright eyed, bushy tailed picture of health. She looked like she was an advertisement for living in the countryside, Pippa positively glowed, with her rosy cheeks, golden hair and shining, chocolatey eyes.  
“I got too comfortable with lie ins over the summer hols and I’m paying for it now.”  
Hecate was so close to saying something back, to smiling and allowing herself this connection, when a shadow fell over her. Ursula stood, looking down on her with disdain.  
“You’re in my chair, Freakbroom,” she stated, motioning for Hecate to leave.  
Just as she was about to move to another desk, their new potions teacher swooped in, an incredibly strict witch named Adelaide.  
“Get to your desk Ursula. You’re here to learn potions not harass Pippa.”  
Ursula jumped and immediately scurried off to a different free chair at the back, leaving Hecate and Pippa alone.  
“Thank god,” Pippa whispered to Hecate, “I’ve never been able to stand that silly witch.”  
For the first time in over a year, Hecate looked at another human being and didn’t think about her weight, or her worthiness, or the other girls’ agenda. She looked into the bright, open face of a girl at least pretending to be nice, and just smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the feedback on the last chapter! I'm glad you all enjoyed and I hope you all like the new installment too.

Hecate decided that the kindness Pippa displayed in potions was a one-off, such a popular witch would never want anything to do with her. She was likely already thinking up a way to shake Hecate and move to someone else’s desk. As Hecate left the lesson, she prepared herself to be ignored the next time she was there; she quashed anything even like hope that it would happen again. So, that night, with a heavy heart, Hecate settled down into her routine of doing her homework before getting into anything too advanced. She considered if it was better to have nobody ever show her kindness so as not to miss it when it was withdrawn. The smell of the kitchens saturated the room as it so often did and Hecate ignored the voices chanting between her ears. One told her to _eat, eat, eat _and the other calling her a weak and useless loser for even considering having dinner.  
“Hello,” a small voice said, making Hecate jump. When her head flipped up in shock and her eyes met a familiar pair of warm, brown ones, her shoulders almost relaxed for a second.   
“Sorry if I startled you,” Pippa apologised, wandering over and sitting down near her. She didn’t say anything more and just started getting out their potions textbook, rustling with papers and pens and, of all things, a neon pink highlighter.  
“Dinner’s not finished yet,” Hecate stuttered out gracelessly, making Pippa’s face flame.   
Sometimes she saw some of the older girls in the library after dinner, but never her peers, and definitely nobody during mealtimes. Between hiding herself at the back and avoiding talking to anyone, she’d never had a visitor before apart from Dorothea, and even that was an accident. In fact, it was a mystery how Pippa had even tracked her down.   
“How...? Why...?” She began again, aware she had made Pippa feel unwelcome. She awkwardly tripped over her words, unsure how to begin.   
“I finished dinner early and wanted to come and sit with you, but I didn’t know where to start looking. I asked Dorothea if she’d seen you and she told me to look here.” Pippa explained, omitting that Dorothea had, in fact, approached her.   
Pippa had initially thought she was being berated when her charms teacher hurried over to her, catching her by the arm on her way out of the dining hall. Pippa had begun to apologise for leaving so early, ready to explain that she wanted to go and find Hecate, but Dorothea beat her to the punch. She mysteriously told Pippa that if she was finished with dinner, it might be nice to go and sit in the alcove with advanced charms in the library. Pippa was a little uneasy following the direction, as she hadn’t been explicitly told Hecate would be there, but was rewarded when she arrived by the familiar sight of sharp shoulders blades hunched over a desk.   
“I thought we could maybe do our potions homework together if you’d not already done it?” She offered, nervously.   
Hecate was dumbfounded, unable to articulate a proper response.  
“I just thought because you’re better at the maths equations, and I’m better at the ingredient equations, it might be better to work as a team.”   
Pippa was babbling, having taken the silence as a polite refusal and not wanting to lose this chance. Hecate was horrified that her awkwardness might cause this conversation to fizzle out when it had barely begun.   
“Of course!” She cut in with just a little too much enthusiasm “that’s a great idea!”   
It felt awkward and forced on both their parts, so Pippa stood up quickly, almost knocking her chair over in the process, and stumbled over to the blackboard mounted on the wall. She was seriously considering if this was a good idea, she wasn’t used to begging for friendship. She wasn’t even sure what he found so utterly intriguing about the girl sat across the table. Within a second, Pippa realised there was no chalk for the blackboard and turned around to try and find the old chalk case the school insisted they had. But Hecate was already holding out a stick of chalk, the edge of her lips turned upwards ever so slightly. Pippa’s unquiet mind just relaxed. _, Of course, _she wanted to be friends with Hecate, she was just awkward; they both were.  
Once they’d both gotten over the initial awkwardness, they worked together instinctively. By the time the sun went down, and the bell rang to signal one hour until lights out, they hadn’t just filled out their potions worksheet, but also their charms, and their chanting. At the bell Pippa started to pack away her things and stood up, surprising Hecate who normally worked until the second bell that went just before lights out. She conceded it might be okay to have a more relaxing evening just this once.  
“Maybe we could meet up again to finish the other work?” Hecate mumbled, “but only if you want to,” she hurried to add on.   
“Definitely” Pippa smiled back, soothing Hecate’s fear, “I get the feeling you’re ace at transfiguration. I can help you out with astronomy though if you need it,” she offered, an easy grin spreading across her features.   
“Feel free to drop by my room if you’re at a loose end.” Pippa offered quickly, “I really like talking to you,” she admitted before she could take it back, her cheeks burning bright red as she hurried away.   
—  
The next day Hecate suddenly noticed Pippa Pentangle everywhere she went. She noticed her sat at breakfast, when she, herself, skulked in late as usual. She noticed her in chanting, her calm, clear voice ringing out as clear as a bell over the other girls mumbling their way through the first lesson of the day. She noticed her in transfiguration, a little dent forming between her eyebrows as she frowned down at the textbook, trying to work out the spell. She wondered how she’d gone so long without noticing her before. Conversely, Pippa had always noticed Hecate, ever since the first day of charms when she’d performed that perfect sparking spell within minutes. Pippa’s parents had already taught her the spell, but she didn’t want to be first. The shower of deep green sparks was bigger than anything she’d ever managed to produce at home; more elegant and finessed then anything she’d ever produced full stop. The way they’d cascaded down around this small, meek girl made her look like something from a fairy tale. From that moment on she swore she would befriend this girl, even if it took her all year. She hadn’t quite banked on her hyperbolic time frame actually coming to fruition, but she was happy to finally make progress all the same.  
When their potions lesson rolled around Pippa jogged to catch up with Hecate, so she wouldn’t wuss out and sit somewhere else, smiling shyly as she said hello. Once they’d settled down and pulled out their textbooks, Adelaide told them to make a laughter potion and went to sit and mark homework at her desk. It was her teaching trademark to leave her pupils to it, no matter how young. She believed that the only way they would learn from a catastrophic mistake is if they felt the consequences of it and, while this allowed her pupils to feel very independent, it often led to a fearful classroom. Everyone knew there would be no rushing over to stop them if they were about to do something dangerous. Hecate immediately began to perform the initial calculations for the potion, printing out neat sums Pippa understood, but wouldn’t attempt. She decided to begin with the ingredient quantities after a brief flick through the textbook. They weren’t the most difficult to work out, but it was time-consuming and finickity work. As Hecate continued plowing through her sums, Pippa flitted back and forth between the cupboards and their bench. When Hecate looked up from her work, she expected to see her partner still reading the textbook, or talking to other friends, as usual. It was a pleasant shock to see Pippa’s page had been filled with her own loopy, cursive script. She smiled when she saw the ingredients neatly laid out on the bench in order of use. They alternated between jobs, Hecate excelled at things that required careful precision and Pippa preferred to cast incantations around the cauldron. They dropped in the final ingredient, Hecate stirred 3 times anti-clockwise and Pippa muttered the last of the stabilising incantations. They both held their breath with anticipation. A thick, pink potion was left, bubbling gently, correlating perfectly with what they were expecting. While they waited for everyone else to finish, they sneakily worked on their astronomy homework together, smiling like they were sharing a secret rather than just whispering about the planets. By the time they finally ladled a little of the potion into the small single sip glasses, Pippa was starting to feel uneasy. She’d never finished her potion this early, and she hadn’t looked up the shelf life of a laughter potion in-cauldron before. Steeling herself she glanced over to Hecate   
“Bottoms up” She teased with a wink, downing the contents of her glass.   
Within seconds Pippa felt the magic seep into her, transforming her into a living glass of champagne. Every cell of her body fizzed with humour. She’d never heard Hecate laugh before, but it was a delightful sound that bounced off the walls around them, making her feel giddy. When Pippa realised she wasn’t actually capable of stopping laughing, even if she wanted to (which she definitely didn’t when Hecate’s infectious giggle was floating around her) she began packing down the workbench through her laughter. She stood up to start decanting the potion into a container, feeling tears drip down her cheeks. She looked over and saw that Hecate was coming to help her, similar tears tracking down her own face. Pippa didn’t notice her bootlace was untied until she tripped, knocking both she and Hecate to the ground, laughing so hard they could barely breathe. Everyone was staring, but for once neither cared, even Ursulla’s cruel chuckle couldn’t stop them giggling. Adelaide rolled her eyes at the hijinks but marked down an A in her grade book all the same.   
Later, Pippa felt so embarrassed about tripping over her own bootlaces and knocking Hecate flying. She was taller now than in first year, but so thin she didn’t have much staying power and Pippa felt her cheeks flame every time she thought about it. That night, she didn’t bolt her dinner and rush to the library, convincing herself there wasn’t much to do, and Hecate could more than cope on her own anyway. Hecate missed Pippa in the library that night and spent far too much time replaying her embarrassing display of emotion and not enough doing her work. Her cheeks flushed crimson, and she was sure Pippa must think her foolish for crying with laughter, writhing around on the floor with her like some kind of drunken buffoon. When she packed up to go back to her room earlier than usual, she paused briefly outside Pippa’s door, trying to work up the courage to knock. Eventually, she shook her head and hurried off. If Pippa wanted to see her then she would have come to the library.   
—  
Hours after lights out, Hecate pinched her wrist again to keep her awake and glanced at her pocket watch. Almost 1. She conceded this was late enough for nobody to be left awake, and rose from her bed silently. Still in her long white nightgown and bare feet, she slipped out of her room and pattered softly down the corridor, shivering in the pale moonlight. She turned the corner and made a beeline towards her destination- the nurse's office. Or more specifically, the large pair of industrial weighing scales that would count her sins up and spit out the sum of her worth. When a door creaked open on the corridor, she startled so suddenly that she nearly fell over, relief rushing over her when she realised the figure stood in pink pajamas was just Pippa.   
“I thought I heard someone out here,” she whispered, “why are you up?”  
“I couldn’t sleep,” Hecate whispered back, lying quickly.   
“I don’t believe you,” Pippa accused  
“Well, why are you up?”  
“I asked first!”  
“That’s childish.”  
The pair soon descended into whispered bickering and, sensing they would soon wake up their sleeping peers, Pippa put her foot down.  
“Fine!” She whisper-shouted and grabbed Hecate by the wrist, dragging her up a staircase leading to the strictly prohibited second floor. Hecate followed her without a fuss only because making a fuss constituted a loud scene, and this was the marginally better option. When she was ushered into a store cupboard mere steps away from her slumbering teachers’ chambers, she’d had enough.   
“What- “She began to whisper but Pippa shushed her and unlatched the window.   
With grace Hecate wasn’t entirely sure she could match, Pippa hoisted herself into the ledge and stepped out onto what Hecate assumed was the roof. _I don’t have to go out there _Hecate thought to herself _nobody would even blame me for leaving, this is breaking 17 different rules. And it’s cold. _She sighed and hiked her nightgown up above her knees, pulling herself out the window.  
“So, where were you going?” Pippa asked, finally dropping the whisper now Hecate had closed the window behind her.   
“Nowhere,” Hecate replied defensively.  
Pippa decided to let it go, not wanting to push her away. She instead turned to look at the night sky, taking in the breath-taking number of stars with wonder. She heard Hecate quietly mutter a warming spell and felt the coldness retreat away from her. She turned around to thank her and when she saw Hecate drifting over she smiled widely, letting out a small giggle.   
“Hecate, you look like a wraith,” she accused jokingly  
“You can’t just call everyone who’s tall and pale a wraith, Pippa,” she teased back, pleased that her overly defensive lie had been left alone “that’s wraith-ist”  
“I can if they also have long dark hair and an ankle-length nightgown.” Pippa retorted with a giggle that Hecate wouldn’t help but join in with.  
It felt good to laugh without the help of a potion. They lapsed into silence once more and Pippa turned her attention back to the sky.   
“I love coming out here on clear nights, the stars always seem bigger on the roof,” she offered up, but Hecate’s curiosity wasn’t satisfied.   
“How did you figure this out?” She knew it was hypocritical to ask such a pointed question when she’d only just refused to answer one. She was curious all the same.   
“I was looking for somewhere quiet to get away in first year and decided the teacher's floor was probably my best bet. Adelaide had obviously left something up here, and when I heard her coming up the stairs, I panicked. So, I hid in the store cupboard. It was really hot, so I unlatched the window to get some air and saw it opened onto the roof. I’ve been escaping here ever since.”   
“I won’t tell anyone,” Hecate said even though Pippa hadn’t asked. She wanted her to know this magical secret was safe.   
They went back to looking at the stars, stood next to each other until Pippa spotted something in the sky, and grabbed Hecate’s hand.   
“Look!” She said with excitement, pointing out towards the stars, “the seven sisters are out. They’re late this year, I’ve been looking for them for weeks,” Pippa finished with excitement.   
Hecate looked at her blankly, not understanding at all. Constellations weren’t her favourite topic.   
“That cluster of stars next to Taurus, it’s easy to find them once you’ve got Orion’s Belt,” Pippa explained quickly.  
“But there’s only 6,” Hecate pointed out, having rapidly located the constellation.   
“One of them is lost,” Pippa started to explain, “she was one of seven beautiful sisters, all of them as bewitching as each other.”   
Her voice had taken on a low, important tone and the last of the clouds had finally lifted, moonlight bleaching her silver. When she turned to face her companion, her dark eyes wide, Hecate felt otherworldly, ethereal.   
“Wherever they went, people stood captivated. Kings coveted them, one king in particular. Sisyphus wanted one of the seven sisters more than he’d ever wanted anything else. But he had nothing to offer, no way to trick them into thinking he was worthy of their attention. The next time he saw them, he just watched from afar, too nervous to say anything. But for some reason one of them, Merope, turned around. The moment she saw him, that ordinary king, so flawed, so unworthy, she knew she would never love anyone more. They married that night. When Sisyphus was punished for his hubris, Merope was so ashamed to love him, a mortal, a criminal, that she hid her face behind her hands. Eventually, they became stars, and Merope was made the dimmest, you can’t even see her without a telescope. Like she’s hiding her face behind her hands forever.” Pippa finished.   
In the silvery glow of the moon, the world had changed around them, becoming somewhere darker and more dangerous than the place they’d left behind.   
“I was going to weigh myself,” Hecate admitted quietly.   
“Why?” Pippa could feel it to, this change. The world shifting around them.   
Hecate couldn’t face Pippa’s searching gaze, so she drifted over to the edge of the roof, stepping up onto the battlements to pace up and down. Usually, she wouldn’t dare do something so dangerous, but in this strange, silent world they had created for themselves, the danger didn’t feel real.   
“Because I’m fat. And a failure. And I don’t like either of those things. And I can fix them.”   
She’d never said it all so plainly before, one sentence after the other, like a string of fine glass beads, too delicate to even touch. She stopped pacing and turned to look at Pippa who was immediately dumbfounded. Never before had she seen someone look so powerful and breakable at the same time. Stood on the edge of the roof, silhouetted against the stars, bathed in the eerie light of a full moon, Hecate looked brave and beautiful; she looked divine. But the moonlight also highlighted the hollows under her cheekbones, the fact she could probably balance a pen on her collarbone. Pippa could even see where each of Hecate’s ribs hooked into her sternum. She couldn’t imagine how anyone who made the incessant chatter in her head stop so suddenly, could think they weren’t worth looking after.   
In the time it took Pippa to draw a breath, an abyss had yawned open under Hecate, reaching out and pulling her down to sleep for a while. Pippa saw her friends’ eyes start to flutter closed and the breath she had drawn to comfort her was twisted until it came back out as a mangled call of her name. The sound of her panicked voice shattered the illusion; they weren’t brave goddesses, observing their stars above. They were 2 teenagers that snuck out past curfew to play pretend on the roof. The second Hecate’s knees sagged beneath her, Pippa felt her panic rise so high that she fractured into a million pieces, dissipating into the air around her. It was only when she and Hecate landed on her bedroom floor with a painful bump did she realise that she’d transferred them somehow.  
“Hecate?” She whispered urgently, sitting up “Hecate!” She repeated, nudging her friend until her eyes started to flicker back open.   
“Are-?” Pippa started to ask her if she was okay in a murmur, but the question got all tangled up in her head, mixing with the equally as important ‘are you going to finish what you were saying on the roof?’ And ‘are you aware how close you came to dying?’; not forgetting ‘were you really going to leave me here all alone?’. When Hecate sat up too, Pippa abandoned her mixed-up questions and threw her arms around her friend, holding her fiercely. She expected Hecate to feel stiff under her arms, as awkward as their seated positions on the floor. But she relaxed almost instantly, wrapping her arms around Pippa in response.   
“You could have died.” Pippa stated bluntly when they’d pulled apart, her voice nothing more than a low murmur.   
“How did we get here? Did you transfer?” Hecate murmured back in shock.   
“I don’t know, I don’t remember, I just remember knowing you wouldn’t survive falling from the roof, and that there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was like a nightmare. Then we were here” Pippa explained, tears tracking quietly down her cheeks, making her voice catch a little as she spoke.   
Hecate, quite wisely, decided now wasn’t the time to push the issue.   
“You need to eat enough to not die.” Pippa demanded suddenly.   
“I’m not going to d- “Hecate began to defend but Pippa cut her off   
“You just nearly did. This isn’t a negotiation.”   
“You really don’t need to- “   
“I’m not asking Hecate. I know you don’t care about yourself, and I know I can’t do anything to change that. I can’t force you to see your worth,” Pippa leans forward and laces her fingers through Hecate’s. She doesn’t pull away. “But please let me care enough for both of us.”   
Tears continue to track down her cheeks, and Hecate can’t help but think that this isn’t fair. This beautiful girl with big brown eyes shouldn’t be allowed to prettily cry at her; make her feel guilty like this. Pippa gets up silently, going over to her dresser where she opens a tin and takes out a biscuit. Hecate’s heart kicks into overdrive, her mind spins, thinking desperately for a way-any way-out of this nightmare. She thinks it maybe would have been better if she’d just fallen off the roof, unconscious and unknowing, not feeling what was rushing up to meet her. Pippa sits back down, crossing her legs in her pink and white striped pajamas. She offers the biscuit out to Hecate expectantly. They sit in this stalemate for a while, Pippa’s arm extended, Hecate staring at her hand like it held all that was wrong in the world. Slowly Hecate reaches out, tramping down the voice in her head telling her to run away right now. She grasps the biscuit between her finger and thumb and snaps it in half, leaving the other half in Pippa’s hand but keeping her own half all the same. Pippa looks down at the half in her hand, and she looks up to the frightened eyes of the only girl that’s ever felt like home and thinks that this will do for a first step. This is enough. ________

________—_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________The next morning both girls sleep in, awaking slowly and groggily, like they’d fallen down a deep hole while they slept, struggling to claw their way out. Pippa usually arrives at breakfast on time, ready to notice Hecate sidle in with 10 minutes to spare, picking at a small bowl of porridge. Today she’s rushing down the corridor, late and completely preoccupied. She doesn’t even notice Hecate until she nearly plows right into her, stopping just short. They smile at each other and somehow Pippa ends up sitting with Hecate, chatting easily about a new flying technique Pippa wants to try out. She pretends it doesn’t bother her that Hecate uses the excuse of conversation to leave most of her small breakfast and she ignores how the sight of Hecate’s collarbones straining against her skin makes her chest constrict. Pippa doesn’t think until afterward that she sat with Hecate because she was too tired to deal with that loud group of witches she usually sat with.  
—  
The near-death experience seemed to have bonded them together in an unspoken way. It was as if they suddenly had an invisible string between them, always pulling them back towards each other. They sat together in lessons and during meal times, the ones Hecate would come to. During dinner, Pippa would eat as quickly as possible and then go off to the library to work with Hecate, Dorothea’s pleased smile following her out the room.   
“Pippa you have to promise me you’ll never tell anyone. Not about my diet or what I said on the roof. None of it.” Hecate demands one evening.   
“I swear I won’t tell anyone,” Pippa tells her, surprised she thought she even has to ask.  
Hecate raises an eyebrow at her, a skill Pippa is slowly becoming extremely jealous of.   
“I promise, Hecate,” she reaffirms, “I swear and promise.”  
Hecate smiles at her in thanks and starts to get on with her work again, but Pippa interrupts her.   
“I’ll keep it a secret from them.” She said “but you don’t keep it secret from me. Do you promise?” Pippa demanded.   
Hecate felt another little weight lift from her shoulders.   
“Swear and promise,” she parroted back.   
—  
The school starts regularly weighing Hecate a few months later, despite Pippa keeping her silence, unsure how she kept losing weight and worried about how thin she’s getting. Hecate believes Pippa when she swears and promises she didn’t tell anyone, so she doesn’t start keeping secrets. She actually enjoys having a confidant. One day, Pippa hurried into the girls’ cloakroom having overestimated the weak spring sun that morning. She finds Hecate desperately gulping water from the tap, bent double over the low sink.   
“You know if you’re thirsty they have this revolutionary thing called a glass,” she teased easily.  
Hecate whipped around immediately, like she’d been caught doing something wrong, but instantly relaxed.   
“Oh, it’s only you,” she sighed, wiping her mouth and leaning against the sink.  
“The nurse keeps threatening to tell my parents if I lose any more weight. I don’t think they would care anyway, but if I drink a lot of water I can make it seem like I’ve gained without actually having to eat anything.” she explained and turned back around.   
“Right, obviously.” Pippa replied as Hecate carried on gulping down enough water that Pippa could swear she heard it sloshing around.   
When she stood up again and reached for her bag Hecate let out a loud hiccup that dissolved into a full-blown fit that no amount of breath-holding could shift. Hecate’s expression became more and more furious with each uncontrolled hic that erupted from her mouth and Pippa couldn’t stop laughing, even if her life had depended on it. Eventually, Pippa manages to control herself for long enough to roll her eyes and motion to Hecate that it was time to go.   
“Come on, hiccup” she said, dissolving into giggles again at her own wit, while Hecate huffed in the background, following her out with a sullen face.   
—  
Pippa had always loved the holidays from school, reveling in the quiet and the calm. She would never admit it to her friends, but she just needed a break from all their chatter and busy noise sometimes. Since Hecate had joined the ranks, Pippa had found a friend to stand in the eye of the storm with, watching the shrieking chaos around them with intrigue. Now, whenever she was home for the holidays, Pippa found herself enduring rather than enjoying her time away from school. It didn’t help that every time she came back after a break Hecate always looked worse for wear. Pippa knew when she came back from her parents’ house she had a rosy-cheeked, healthy-looking glow; country breaks suited her. But when Hecate came back she looked even paler, thinner, and more tired than before she left. Pippa was almost certain her friend probably didn’t eat more than fruit from the moment she left school until the moment she returned. So, Pippa came to dread times they would all go home, wishing the days away until she came back. She swore letters were not enough. She didn’t want a stiff piece of paper in her hands every day, she wanted her funny, witty friend. She wanted to plait each other’s hair, go swimming, climb trees, grow herbs. _No _she thought with a frown _letters are not enough _. One day just after the Easter holidays, Hecate rolled her shirt sleeve up in the heat during lunch, and Pippa couldn’t help but gasp. She knew not to make a fuss, but she could clearly see an indentation in running down Hecate’s arm that mapped the space between her friends’ ulna and radius. She didn’t even know you could be that thin and still be alive. At that moment, something inside of her broke, and she couldn’t bear the thought of being away from Hecate all summer long. A small, scared part of her brain thought that Hecate probably wouldn’t survive the summer at home anyway.  
“Come to mine for summer, Hiccup,” she blurted out suddenly, glad they were sat alone.   
Her parents had told her she was more than welcome to invite someone for a week or two of summer if she wanted to, she’d send them a letter to explain.   
“Are you sure you want me to come? I’m not sure I’d be much fun,” Hecate broached carefully, not wanting to impose.   
“Nonsense. Mum and Dad told me to invite any friends over that I wanted to.”  
“Well, maybe you should invite some of the other girls, I’m sure Maisie and Evie would love to go,” Hecate suggested, referring to two of the girls they hung out with sometimes.   
If Pippa didn’t know Hecate well, she might have been offended, but she pushed on regardless.  
“I don’t want anyone else to come because they’re tiring, and summer is meant to be a break. I want you to come, Hiccup. Please?” She appealed, finally resorting to begging.   
“Okay” Hecate conceded, a smile spreading across her face.  
Pippa pretended she didn’t sigh in relief._____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, I love hearing what you think and keep an eye out for new chapters.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for waiting so long for this one, I really struggled to get it right. Hope you enjoy :)

Hecate swallowed heavily as she touched down on the packed earth, still in two minds whether or not to just fly home. She still couldn’t believe that she’d been allowed to come at all. When presented with the neatly written letter from Pippa’s parents formally requesting Hecate’s company for the summer, her mother had raised both eyebrows.  
“Pentangle?” She’d queried, the syllables elongating with disapproval “I’ve never heard of them”  
Despite the obvious eye-rolling and disapproval, Hecate had been allowed to swap her school things for summer things and fly off to Pippa’s alone. She tried to convince herself it wasn’t just because her parents were happy for any reason to pack her off for the summer. With every metre between herself and her parents she felt freer and freer, like the bruising weight of their expectations was lifting from her shoulders. Unfortunately her anxiety returned as she stood in front of Pippa’s gate, leaving her broom hovering while she gathered her courage. This was silly, she knew Pippa liked her, she’d given her every excuse to retract her offer and she’d _still_ insisted. Hecate wrapped her fingers around her bicep absentmindedly, taking comfort in the feeling of her thumb easily touching her fingers. She quite badly wanted to measure her thighs as well, but she understood that measuring her own bicep was weird enough. She knew everyone would look at her defensive posture and not immediately think she was making sure her arm wasn’t any bigger than the circumference of her fingers. There wasn’t much else she could be doing when she wrapped her hands around the top of her leg. Having just about gathered the five seconds of bravery she required to actually open the gate, Pippa and her parents apperated on the long path leading through their extensive front lawn to the gate. Pippa barrelled ahead of her parents, thrilled Hecate had been allowed to come. Her mother waved a hand, muttering a short incantation Hecate could sense from where she was standing, and the gate opened with a creak. Hecate allowed them to believe she just hadn’t known how to open it, rather than allowing them to know how shaky she was feeling. Pippa’s parents startled slightly at the young witch standing just outside their large garden; she was thin to the extreme, all spindly long limbs, jutting bones and deep hollows. Paired with her paleness, dark features and serious expression she gave off an eerie, otherworldly vibe. Pippa’s mother tried to not judge the young girl's parents for letting her get so malnourished and reminded herself that not all families were as lucky as them. Noticing the lack of any luggage she chastised herself further, it wasn’t her place to judge those less fortunate.  
“Hiccup!” Pippa shouted excitedly, running to hug Hecate with so much force it mildly resembled a tackle.  
Hecate had never been met with so much enthusiasm, felt so wanted, so necessary. She wrapped her arms around Pippa and inhaled her flowery scent, the anxiety falling away from her. She didn’t even count the seconds, allowing herself this small comfort until Pippa’s parents caught up with them.  
“Hello... Hiccup?” Her father greeted with a smile  
“Hecate” she corrected with a wry smile “my name’s Hecate”. She rolled her eyes at Pippa, but she couldn’t find it within herself to feel anything other than fondness.  
“Well met, Hecate” Pippa’s mother greeted, raising her hand to her forehead  
“Well met, Mrs Pentangle” She replied, mirroring the gesture.  
“No formalities necessary dear, I’m Penelope and this is Percy” she corrected with a warm grin.  
As hard as she tried, Penelope couldn’t get a handle on Hecate. While her malnutrition and lack of belongings had initially suggested poverty, her clothes were made from expensive fabrics and well fitted, like they’d been tailored or even hand made. Hecate reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a small piece of parchment.  
“This is the incantation to summon my things from the transportation post at home” she explained shyly, extending it out in offering. Penelope took it with a smile, masking her growing confusion. Personal transportation posts were expensive, Hecate didn’t come from poverty if she had a personal transport at her beck and call. She looked down at the incantation, not entirely sure what would happen and then looked at her husband for confirmation. Percy shrugged almost imperceptibly in response to his wife, they had both been raised in typical upper middle-class comfort, nowhere near well off enough to even encounter a private transport. Penelope recited the incantation carefully, making sure to enunciate every syllable correctly, unsure what would happen otherwise. With a crackle and a flash, Hecate’s large black trunk materialised in the middle of the path, shocking everyone except Hecate who was used to the spell. She wasn’t sure why Penelope had summoned the heavy trunk to the middle of the garden when they could have just done it inside. She was definitely feeling too skittish to say so.  
“It’s fine, this is a good learning moment” Percy reassured and raised his hands over the trunk with drama.  
“ _gravitate carentibus_ ” he boomed, taking on the same careful tone Pippa and Hecate’s teachers used. The trunk immediately jumped into the air with ease, and Percy lowered his arms. He motioned for the girls to follow him and walked off down the path, the trunk following them like an obedient dog. When they reached the steps leading through the front door, he halted suddenly and manoeuvred the trunk to float about waist height at the foot of the short staircase.   
“Come, come girls” Penelope invited, ushering them over “now normally, you would need to do some chanting to achieve this effect, but you should be okay to take over the established incantation” she explained “don’t think you’ll be able to do this as easily as Percy, you’re not strong enough, but if you keep your hands close to the trunk it should be fine” she finished.  
Hecate immediately warmed to her fast, informative teaching style. She had converted her parents' easy use of levitation for years, and was desperate to imitate them, desperate to take home a skill they would quietly approve of.  
Pippa and Hecate both moved to stand either side of the trunk and extended their arms out, suddenly feeling nervous. Hecate reached for her magic, feeling it spring up to meet her with anticipation, pooling in her belly and flowing to her fingertips.  
“My incantation is currently holding the trunk up with a brace of magic beneath it” Percy told them once he saw the telltale glow of magic settle over them “I want you to reach out with your magic and slowly take the weight a little at a time” he finished, leaving them to settle into the communication.  
Hecate reached her magic out and tried to take over some of the strength Percy was giving to the spell. She was embarrassed to see that the effort wasn’t even causing him to look strained and yet she was pouring almost all her strength into it and barely making any difference. She’d never failed before; she was good at magic, she had so much raw power it often terrified her. How could she not lift the damn trunk? Hecate was about ready to cry until she glanced up and saw the same dent between Pippa’s eyebrows that formed during transfiguration theory, she selfishly felt better knowing her friend was struggling too.  
“Maybe this is too mu-“ Penelope started to excuse them, Percy moving forward to finish his spell.  
“No.” Pippa stated decisively “we can do it, come on Hecate” she finished, moving around to grab her friend's hand. Pippa’s magic had always felt light and effervescent, dancing under her skin, making her feel powerful and full of light. But when she grabbed Hecate’s hand, she felt the darker, rawer feel of her friend's magic mix with her own and a rush of golden warmth flood over her. Hecate’s power seemed to come from her very bones; a deep, smouldering inferno that complimented Pippa perfectly. She instantly felt euphorically powerful, ready to do anything. Working together they began taking over, the trunk sagging towards the ground even through their combined strength. They struggled up the stairs regardless, straining so much it probably would have taken less effort to have carried it; they only missed the ground by a centimetre at most.  
“God, Hiccup, what’s in here?” Pippa accused teasingly  
“I think mother packed half the library” she replied, her voice strained “you know, if you keep calling me Hiccup I’m going to have to come up with an equally embarrassing nickname for you, Pentangle” she teased back.  
They dropped the trunk just outside of the door with a heavy thump, smiling at each other with pride.  
“There’s nothing embarrassing to call me” Pippa rebuked with a sly grin, crossing her arms.  
“If you say so Pipsqueak” she replied, patting Pippa once on the top of her head.  
“Oh you’ve been sitting on that, Hardbroom!”  
Penelope and Percy smiled at the warm, easy space that existed between them, glad Pippa had finally found someone she could just be herself with. They’d both worried that, while their only daughter seemed to attract people like she was magnetic, she very rarely appreciated constant company. They were curious if this would be the case with Hecate.  
“Well now we’ve managed to tackle the steps out here, you only have to get it up to the top floor” Penelope told them, a mock serious expression covering her face.  
She couldn’t help but laugh as she saw them both look at her with panicked exasperation.  
“I’ll do it” Percy interjected with a laugh, planting a kiss on top of Pippa’s head as Penelope began to usher them inside “no need to tease the poor girl to death before she’s even though the door” he directed towards Penelope, winking playfully at Hecate who couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt this welcome. Everyone was smiling and laughing as she shrugged her summer cloak off and allowed herself to be led inside, finally understanding what home was supposed to feel like.

—

The next morning Hecate awoke with startled panic, not sure where she was or what had just landed on her bed. She quickly discerned that she was not in her bed, and the thing that landed on her was not a thing at all, but Pippa, lying on her front a little further down the duvet. Knees bent and ankles crossed, she looked up at Hecate with a smile, her pyjamas still rumbled from her own bed.  
“Summers for sleeping, Pip” Hecate groaned, her eyelids still heavy.  
“Summers for fun” she corrected, displeased with her friend's noncommittal hum in response.  
“You know, maybe if you ate more you’d have more energy” Pippa broached as Hecate shifted around a little so their heads were closer together.  
“It’s not that easy” she whispered back, heart constricting in her chest.  
“I know” Pippa mumbled back “I just worry about you” she admitted, lightly tracing her fingers up the indentation in Hecate’s forearm.  
“Nobody else does”  
“I’m not anybody else”  
“I know”  
Sunlight streamed in from the window behind Pippa, transforming her hair into messy strands of liquid gold. Looking at her, bathed in the promise of the day, Hecate supposed she’d never met anyone less like everyone else in her entire life.  
“Can you swear and promise something for me?” Pippa proposed, eyes warm and lips quirked up into a lazy grin.  
“I don’t know, I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep” Hecate pointed out, every cell of her body telling her to just agree and not be awkward for once in her life.  
“Promise you’ll try” Pippa demanded, not needing to explain further “swear and promise”  
“Swear and promise” Hecate vowed.  
“Sorted, then” Pippa stated with a smile, standing up and throwing the covers off Hecate  
“Come on”  
Hecate rolled her eyes and got up, liking that her bare feet didn’t instantly take a chill as they would at home. Rather than enduring bare flagstones, Pippa’s parents had carpeted the house with an assortment of homey looking rugs that Hecate found she quite liked. The care the Pentangles had taken to make their home less severe had the opposite of a calming effect on Hecate, it felt like the world was slightly off kilter. She felt like she’d walked into an alien world instead of a kitchen; the room she hated the most everywhere else suddenly seemed welcoming here. She felt like her own sombre home was a slower, greyer version of the happy chaos she stepped into. Hecate was used to the cold easily permeating her papery skin and chilling her bones, she’d have never dreamt of walking around in just her pyjamas at home. But there were large French doors on the far side of the spacious kitchen thrown open to clear out the chill that settled so easily in old houses. She was used to Alberta’s lonely welcome rather than the bright chatter between Pippa’s parents. As they sat at the large oak table Percy rose, wearing dark, serious robes.  
“Good morning Hecate” he smiled “did you sleep well?”  
“Yes Mr- Percy” she corrected herself hastily, smiling back at him  
“Good, I’m glad” he replied, bending down to pick up a sleek briefcase “Good morning doughnut” he teased easily, leaning down to playfully kiss Pippa’s temple while she squealed indignantly, trying to pour a glass of orange juice.  
Hecate poured herself a glass of water from the pretty jug already sat on the table as Percy quickly pecked Penelope goodbye and transported himself out of the room, unable to stop herself grinning.  
“He’s insufferable” Pippa insisted, rolling her eyes, but she couldn’t stop herself smiling even while she said it.  
The easy love and affection seeped into Hecate, it felt sweet, like sugar dissolving on her tongue.  
“I don’t know Pipsqueak. I think doughnut’s quite fetching”   
“Don’t even joke, Hiccup”  
“I’m sure Ursulla Hallow would think it’s just as cute as I do”  
“You wouldn’t dare”  
“Try me”  
Pippa giggled, her eyes flashing with teasing menace as she reached into her glass and lightly flicked a few drops of orange juice at her friend. Hecate gasped as the few, sticky drops landed on her face and reached to flick a few drops of water back at Pippa. Her eyes widened in surprise that Hecate had really just flicked water at her over the breakfast table, and she laughed with shock. Pippa reached over to gain the upper hand by taking the water jug- Hecate would never get a glass of orange juice out of her hair- but it was shifted just out of reach by the tiniest flick of Penelope’s fingers.  
“Now, now girls” she chided lightly “do you think total warfare can wait until after breakfast?” She finished, placing a bowl of porridge with strawberries and honey in front of each girl. Hecate wasn’t giggling anymore.  
 _ ~~Porridge 142 or 255 or 291 or 377~~_  
 _ ~~What liquid did she use?~~_  
 _ ~~Honey’s pure sugar~~_  
 _ ~~Don’t eat that~~_  
 _ ~~Oh god please no~~_  
Hecate’s heart started beating so hard she was sure her skin was vibrating with it, her mind span and she could feel the breezy excuse about not eating breakfast ready to burst out of her mouth, like a bird waiting to be set free. She picked up the spoon, fidgeting it in her hand, all too aware of the unnatural noise it caused. She focused on the movement rather than on her rising anxiety.  
 _Don’t make it weird_  
 _Don’t make it weird_  
 _It’s nice here don’t make it sad and awful like everything else_  
She noticed Penelope had sat down with her own breakfast, pouring herself a mug of coffee to go with her toast.  
 _Just eat it_  
Pippa had struck up an animated conversation with her mother, grabbing her attention every time she started to look over at Hecate.  
 _Put it in your mouth, chew and swallow it’s not that hard_  
She scraped the honey off a slice of strawberry with the edge of her spoon and then scooped it up.  
 _Anything Pippa can do I can do_  
She shoved the slice of fruit into her mouth and chewed, the sharp sweetness invading her taste buds. She could feel the world closing in, the edges turning black, the colours dimming to grey. Nothing felt real and she couldn’t breathe. The calories from the strawberry unsheathed their claws, burrowing into her system like a virus, ripping her cells to shreds. She felt dizzy.  
 _Calm down_  
Pippa was starting to look concerned. If she wasn’t careful she’d have to tell Penelope and then she’d decide Hecate was more trouble than she was worth and send her home.  
 _Breath_  
Hecate thought of Percy conjuring a whole bed for her in Pippa’s room because he thought they’d want to share, of the sunlight filtering through Pippa’s messy hair this morning, of Penelope fondly calling her Hiccup when she said goodnight, of Percy kissing his wife goodbye before he went to work. She allowed herself to be comforted by Pippa’s family, because they knew how to love and just did, like it was easy, like she was easy to love. The strawberry didn’t feel like a virus anymore, and it felt a little easier to silence the voice chanting mean words between her ears. She didn’t finish the whole thing, she probably didn’t even finish half, but she didn’t want to cut her stomach open and take it all out. She even managed to join in the conversation, her contribution a little thin and quiet, but real all the same. She was grateful for Pippa taking this time to regale her mother with stories from school. Hecate might care more about being thin than most- if not all- the things in her life; but today, Pippa leaning over and squeezing her hand when Penelope turned her back to wash pots felt like it might be a close second.  
“I’m proud of you, Hiccup” Pippa whispered, and Hecate decided she was glad that she’d tried.

—

A few days later, Hecate was lying on her stomach in the back garden resolutely Not Thinking about how she could feel her bloated tummy pressing into the ground. She was drawing a wildflower in front of her to take her mind off it, pencil light on the page. Pippa’s back garden more resembled a wild-flower speckled meadow than a traditional garden, but Hecate loved it. It was nowhere near as big as the grounds surrounding her own home, and the sparse woodland at the bottom perimeter looked almost comical thinking about the large, dense wood on her parents land; Hecate knew which one she preferred all the same.  
“Stop doing that” Pippa stated as she put down a small, oddly shaped suitcase and a book and flopped down next to her friend “I can hear you thinking about calories all the way from the house, Hiccup”  
She easily plucked the small drawing pad out of Hecate’s hands and went to go and put it down. In the process she saw a glimpse of the skilled wildflower sketch inside and took a moment to look at it properly  
“This is impressive, Hiccup” she complimented and laid it down.  
“It would be more impressive if you would let me finish”  
“Hush” Pippa demanded and Hecate rolled her eyes, pushing herself up to sit cross legged.  
“Today I thought we could get ahead. Show Ursulla Hallow who’s boss” she offered cryptically, opening the weird looking, almost suitcase. Hecate peered in but was immediately confused as to how this would help them show their school nemesis anything. Inside the suitcase was a matte black disk with a silver arm hovering above it.  
“What is that?” Hecate asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.  
“It’s a record player. It’s meant to plug into electricity but dad modified it with magic so now it’ll play anywhere” she explained “it plays music” she elaborated, seeing Hecate seemed none the wiser.   
There was something deliciously illicit about using an illegally modified, non-magical item that Hecate loved. She unabashedly stared as Pippa set a record playing and smiled when it produced sound. It was faster, messier and more melodic than chanting, more like a musical broom crash than anything her parents would approve of.  
“That’s so cool Pip, but how will it help us get back at Ursualla?”  
“Oh no, that’s not for getting even, that’s just because I had to go all year without listening to Blondie and I was about to come out in a rash” Pippa reassured, laughing lightly “this is for getting ahead” she finished, reaching over and dumping the book on Hecate’s lap. Pippa then proceeded to put her sunglasses on and flop back onto the grass, quietly humming along to the record player. Hecate would want to read more than the title and why should she waste good sunbathing time?   
“On using witchcraft and magic to control the elemental forces” Hecate read aloud, opening the book with trepidation. Hecate read the first few pages rapidly, intending to look over to her friend afterwards to try and avoid an awkward silence, but she was immediately drawn in. The magic detailed in the book was like nothing she’d ever seen: simple but so fundamentally divergent from what they’d already learnt that Hecate felt like she was trying to pick through Ancient Greek.  
“I think this is older than my grandparents” she wagered.   
“I tried to do some of the spells last year but I was nowhere near powerful enough” Pippa offered, not bothering to take her sunglasses off.  
“Yeah, I don’t think one year’s gonna be enough, Pip. Where did you even find this?”  
“In the attic last summer, it’s not complicated magic”  
“No, but it’s like trying to learn English by reading Shakespeare” she rebutted weakly, her natural curiosity already piquing.  
“You’re right, Hiccup. I’m not good enough and you’re not good enough either. But together?” Pippa sat up, reaching out to ghost her fingertips across Hecate’s with the lightest touch, making sure her magic was awake and concentrated there. “Don’t you feel it?” Pippa asked, her voice barely above a murmur.  
Hecate felt her heart stutter in her chest, her magic reaching up to touch Pippa’s instinctively. She’d felt like the levitation trick had been a fluke, but Pippa’s magic complimented hers so perfectly. It drew it outwards, allowed her to access all the power that so often scared her while keeping it all in check. In the tiny space where her fingertips lightly brushed against Pippa’s was a power that was greater than the sum of its parts.  
“Yes. I feel it.” She murmured back  
“Well then. Let’s get ahead, Hiccup”

—

Time passed in the way it so often did, ebbing and flowing like a river in the mountains. Pippa and Hecate would eat breakfast with Penelope every morning, just catching Percy before he headed off to work; he did something important sounding that neither girl really cared about. After a few weeks, Hecate finished her breakfast more times than not, and on the days she couldn’t, Pippa would squeeze her hand as she pulled her outside, and smile at her anyway. Eventually, Hecate started to let go of her old belief that love had to be conditional. On one of these days, when the voice had been too loud and persuasive, Pippa led her down to the bottom of the garden, hidden behind the smattering of trees around the perimeter of their land.  
“I think you’ve had enough time to read the book, and I’m inpatient” she stated simply, once they found a small clearing to flop down in “oh, and don’t mention it to mum or dad; they would go mad if they knew I was trying magic from the old books in the attic”  
Hecate gave her agreement; everyone knew old magic was either extremely powerful or extremely unstable and sometimes both. She couldn’t imagine that caring Penelope and Percy would allow them to take a risk like this.   
“Lets try something easy first” Hecate suggested and Pippa nodded in agreement. She stood up and drifted over to a patch of wildflowers almost ready to bloom. The book was clear about how to perform the spell, Hecate needed to use her magic to sense the energy in the roots of the plants and push her own power into them. The only problem was that no modern magic needed them to ever sense power in the natural world. Witches incited herbs to do their spells for them, they wound their magic off and pushed it off. There was no finesse like this anymore, no witches could remember how to do elemental magic and the practice had died out centuries ago. She lifted her hand and hovered it over the flowers, pooling her magic into her palm. Her magic always made her skin tingle, so she hoped that the increased sensitivity would help her discern the strings of energy linking the flowers to their roots.   
“I can’t do it, Pip” she eventually admitted, her face crumpled into a cross scowl. Hecate was not used to failing, never mind with such utter totality. She had no idea how she was even meant to find this energy to aim her magic at.   
“That’s what happened to me last year, I tried and tried and all that happened was I eventually singed mum’s rose bush” she told Hecate with a wince; Penelope felt very strongly about her roses. She offered her hand out to Hecate, who took it with slight trepidation, and they pooled their magic together. They weren’t yet used to the raw power that raced between them, it caused them to flinch when they encouraged it. They cautiously reached out their magic towards the flowers, trying to feel for the strings of energy around them, yet still they sensed nothing. Hecate made a frustrated sound and sank to her knees, pulling Pippa down with her. She splayed her hand out on the ground in frustration and suddenly understood why they couldn’t feel this energy the book talked about. They had assumed it was in the air, but it was in the ground.   
“Put your hand on the floor, Pippa” she told her friend “can you feel where the roots are? I can feel where the roots are”  
“Yeah, it’s like they’re pulsing under the ground” she affirmed “we could just kind of, shoot some magic off and see what happens?” she finished, knowing Hecate would want to try a more elegant approach but not knowing what else to try.  
When Hecate shrugged and nodded, they both sent blasts of magic off in the general direction of the roots they could feel. Nothing happened at first, but after a few minutes one of the flowers bloomed very suddenly and then proceeded to wither, overloaded by the power it was flooded with. When they lifted their hands from the ground, there were scorch marks on the grass, but it was a start. Hecate couldn’t shift the smile off her face for the rest of the day.

\---

Summer passed in a haze of magic and laughter. Whenever they weren’t practising spells, they would be listening to records or drawing or running around. Pippa was shocked to discover Hecate had never heard non-magical music before the Blondie she had played and took it upon herself to educate her friend. Hecate’s penchant for trashy pop gave her no end of amusement as she flipped through her rock records, trying to find a compromise. In the interest of Hecate’s non-magic education, when they happened across a chest full of dusty, non-magic books Pippa insisted they read some. After that Percy would find them, without fail, tangled up in the late afternoon sun reading old paperbacks when he came home. Hecate proclaimed The Great Gatsby was the best book she’d ever read. Pippa maintained that Alice in Wonderland was the best book ever written to the truly enlightened. The weekends passed in a blur of sports-related activities in the back garden, hosted by Percy and begrudgingly participated in by Penelope. Hecate expected to do nothing more than tolerate the activities, but found she started looking forward to the funny, four person tournaments. Percy decided it would be a good idea to teach the girls how to play rugby, which Hecate displayed shocking finesse in. She could dodge past anyone, fast as a whippet. One day Percy decided he’d had enough, and playfully threw her over his shoulder to get her back down the other end of the pitch. Hecate laughed so hard her sides hurt, bouncing around as Percy pretended to score a try with her. Pippa allowed it, much to Peleope’s chagrin. The next day she wondered what it would have been like if she had been born here instead of at home. She wondered who she would have become growing up with Percy’s teasing and Penelope’s affection. She liked the idea of being their child, but she didn’t want to be Pippa’s twin. The twins in their year often quarrelled and bickered, her and Pippa were much better at being best friends.

After noticing that Hecate seemed so anxious around food, Penelope started keeping an eye on her. She could rarely tempt her with anything stodgy particularly, lunch and dinner were a battle, but she’d gotten into the habit of finishing her breakfast more times than not. In response to this she’d started stirring cream into Hecate’s porridge whenever she could get away with it. She didn’t understand why Hecate never ate anything without radiating anxiety, but she wasn’t a naturally judgemental person, and she trusted if there was anything badly wrong, Pippa would tell her. They didn’t keep secrets. She felt an intense responsibility to send Hecate back to school in better shape than she had arrived. She didn’t know if it was because she was a mother or because Hecate had quite thoroughly stolen her heart, she just knew it hadn’t been difficult considering the state she’d turned up in. From what she could discern from asking around, and the scarce information Hecate offered up about her family, the Hardbroom’s were astronomically wealthy aristocrats that were every inch old money. Realistically, Hecate should have been friends with Pippa at all. But when she thought of Hecate jumping to attention at Percy dropping a book, of her apologising profusely when her fire starter spell had spluttered out, of her wistful gaze whenever they laughed at an old family joke, she sadly thought that all the money in the world couldn’t replace love. She glanced out the large window above the sink to the back garden and smiled despite her sombre train of thought. The girls had taken it upon themselves to learn some trick magic she was sure Heacate’s parents would despise, and were running around using it to cast water spells at each other. They were far away but she could still hear their shrieks of laughter and the music of the record player drifting through the open French doors. She cast a quick zoom spell to check up on them, thinking back to the pale-faced, terrified waif that showed up at their gate nearly 2 months ago. Hecate may still be pale and thin, but she wasn’t thin enough to make Penelope’s chest hurt just to look at her, which was an improvement. She didn’t jump at loud noises anymore, she didn’t startle when Penelope or her husband showed her affection. In this moment she was wearing a wide smile, her wet hair spinning out behind her as she pivoted to cast a counterspell. She probably shouldn’t have laughed when it hit Pippa square in her damp, little face, but she did. Hecate’s improvement was nowhere near enough, or as much as she wanted to give, but Penelope decided it would have to be enough for this year. They were going back to school tomorrow after all.

That night Pippa climbed out of her own bed and padded across the room.  
“Shift up” she whispered and slipped under the bedding as Hecate shuffled to make room for her in the narrow single bed.  
They pulled the duvet over their heads, curling up together naturally. Hecate muttered a quick lighting spell which enveloped them both in warm, low light. It felt good to make this kind of impromptu den, they were going back to third year at the academy and knew their days making duvet forts were numbered.  
“Have you had a good summer, Hiccup?” Pippa couldn’t help but ask, thinking of records, wildflowers and paperback novels. Hecate replied without pause or hesitation  
“The best ever”

**Author's Note:**

> Any feedback is welcome :) keep an eye out for further chapters!


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